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Hollinwood Academy

Oldham, Lancashire

Sector: Education & Special Needs

Front Entrance View

Background
Extraspace appointed us to work with them on a Design and Build tender for a new ASD School for KS1, KS2, KS3 and KS4 stage pupils with Learning Disabilities (predominantly Aspergers). The School was to be co-located on the site of New Bridge Special School and share some of the Arts facilities New Bridge had to offer, whilst providing additional Sports and Special Needs facilities for the School and Community.

Ethos
Utilising Offsite construction to provide the Classroom, Offices, Training and Administrative Accommodation allowed the building to be designed and delivered in a short time frame, to a tight budget.

Design
The Clients initial design proposals which had been submitted for Planning approval, were costed as part of the tender excercise and were over budget, and there were issues with the design and layout being deliverable. Tendering contractors were asked to come up with solutions!

The Contractor priced the Client design, whilst we as Architects took the remainder of the tender time to come up with an amended layout and solution for the School whcih would be regulation compliant, cater for pupils with ASD, and bring the project back on budget. We produced drawings to explain what changes had been made and what the issues were with the original design and how they had been solved. As a result ESS were apointed, and we went on to produce the Stage 4 Design drawings and agree detail with Building Control, whilst the Contractor set the foundations for the modules.

Oldham were so pleased with the Design of this school that they appointed us to design a new 3FE Primary School - see Grange.

Facilities
Nursery, Recepton and Year 1 to 14 Classrooms are provided for ASD pupils, together with 4 additional Specilist classrooms. Classrooms on the Ground floor have immediate access to secure play space at the rear. Classrooms on the upper floor have access to an external secure balcony area to provide for external play activities and fresh air.

In addition the front block incorporates a Training Room, SEN Resource Rooms, and Offices. The side block constructed on site provides a Kinesthetic Ball Hall, Dining Room and Full Size Sports Hall (capable of providing a home for local disabled Basketball and Rugby Teams), the front area to the side of the Sports Hall provides three external accessed retail units to provide traiing facilities for Pupils.

The School also shares other facilities with New Bridge School.

Our proposals also included provision of on site external play and social spaces and a MUGA. We also provided a large car parking area to service both Schools, extending and linking with the existing car park for New Bridge School, together with an on site route for minibuses and specialist vehicles delivering and collecting pupils to queue up on site and relieve pressure on adjacent roads.

Construction

Once work started on site, the Foundations and Groundworks were undertaken on site, whilst the Modules were fabricated in the Factory. Modules were then delivered to site and the main teaching part of the school was put together on site in 6 days. Cladding of the modular units was then carried out, whilst the internal fit out was completed.

The Sports Hall, Dining Room and Ball Hall were erected on site consisting of a Steel Frame and on site cladding. Becuase of costs some elements of the initial design were lost. At the front of the Sports Hall are three retail spaces that allow Students to be trained to work in Shops, Garden Centres and Retail spaces. These were intended to be a single storey band of rendered accomodation with a more emphasised entrance canopy structure and separated from the Sports Hall by a glazed set back.

Utilising offsite construction meant that the Contractor was able to deliver the building for the new School Term

See Hollinwood Extension for an extension we designed for the school in late 2018 as a result of the success of the school and need for additional pupil places.

3D Image of Front Entrance

Status: Completed September 2015.
Value: £6.3m
Type: New Build using Offsite Construction
Contract: Design and Build
Client: Oldham Borough Council
Architect: bpArchitecture
Project Manager: Oldham Borough Council
M&E Consultant: SI Sealy
Contractor: Extraspace Solutions